Defense Culpability Act

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A law book describing the Defense Culpability Act.

The Defense Culpability Act was a law enacted by the former queen of Khura'in, Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in. The act was as follows: "In the name of Her Eminence, those who would support criminals will be deemed just as guilty." The act was passed on June 14, c. 2005 and nullified on May 19, 2028 with the queen's dethronement and arrest.

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The Defense Culpability Act stated that, if an attorney tried to defend an accused person of a crime, and he or she failed to find the accused "not guilty", the attorney would be subjected to the same punishment as the accused. Under that act, many defense attorneys met with grizzly fates; some were sent to prison, subjected to slavery, or even received the death penalty. It was for this very reason that, before Phoenix Wright came along, there had been no attorneys left in Khura'in, and why Ahlbi Ur'gaid tried to dissuade Wright from defending him. However, the law was not restricted only to defense attorneys, but also applied to anybody assisting a person who was eventually found guilty in court, no matter their reason for doing so or whether or not they were doing it willingly.

While seemingly made for religious reasons and to prevent the rise of another Dhurke Sahdmadhi, in truth it was the culmination of a scheme by Ga'ran to give herself an iron grip on Khura'in through its legal system. By discrediting defense attorneys as "unclean", prosecutors like Ga'ran were naturally regarded as heroes and saints, giving them special privileges and prestige to do as they wanted without true legal repercussion. It also gave her and Inga Karkhuul Khura'in legal excuse to do anything they wanted to their political enemies, to the point where Inga would regularly carry around a stamp meant for authorizing executions in his mouth purely to deal with the paperwork conveniently.

However, while the DC Act was intimidating enough to completely eradicate the profession of defense attorney in Khura'in, its validity depended on Ga'ran's authority as queen due to its phrasing and having been enacted during her reign. As such, the law was declared null and void in 2028 when Ga'ran was deposed.

It was because of how the Defense Culpability Act functioned that the high priest of Khura'in, Tahrust Inmee, was forced to kill himself in order to save his wife Beh'leeb Inmee and his then unborn child Faitah Inmee from being convicted and put to death due to Beh'leeb's accidental killing of acolyte Rheel Neh'mu in self-defense. In the process, Tahrust framed Maya Fey for his own murder as well as Neh'mu's to throw suspicion off of his wife, as the absence of lawyers in Khura'in due to the Defense Culpability would make it next to impossible to prove that Neh'mu had been killed in self-defense.

When Wright lost Fey's trial for Tahrust's murder to rival prosecutor Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, he, alongside Fey, was found guilty under the Defense Culpability Act and sentenced to death. It would not be until the trial for Neh'mu's murder the following day that their sentence was overturned and Wright proved that Beh'leeb had acted in self-defense, allowing Tahrust to finally move on with no further regrets.